INTERNATIONAL SHORTS IN THE COMPETITION OF 14TH BUSHO FESTIVAL

So once we begun the introduction of the Hungarian shorts by stating the home field isn’t an advantage in competition, now please take a bunch of the international line up as well. Nothing chronological, nothing in frame, just as they are.

A man awakes in a detoxication room, with his doctor telling him not-so-cheering news in Viktor Hertz’s How It Feels To Be Hungover, we might find out what worth to kill time with in this comfortable situation, but surely not with remembering and remorse. Genuinely funny short with an ambivalent spirit, nothing moral analysis, just portraying. Once we had a Russian winner in 6th BuSho, The Last Day Of Ivan Bulkin, but this year the Russians went one gear up, as four filmmakers will present in the Festival with three shorts. One of them is Egor Chickanov’s Wrong Shape, a typical fitness thriller, with the everlasting female desire of being slim in the spotlight. When a weighing woman gets the invitation of her school anniversary, she does everything to regain her former shape. The other one is Denis Prima’s About Cinema, basically 5 film novels, all set in a car: showing events of a robbery, hipsters debating about cinema, trial shoots by a producer, and hitting of a car stealer. The 3rd one is God does exist, or Where Do Babies Come From by Guzel Sultanova, a cosy retro movie: it’s 1990 when two young girls are about to be promoted to pioneers, when they find a book of Kama Sutra and realize that they had been told lies by their parents about how babies are born. But since a pioneer is always honest, they decide to take action. The Germans again are here with some excellent shorts, amongst them is The third King by Christoph Oliver Strunck – a beautifully taken costumed short, in the coldest German winter in 1944 during WW II. The Afro-American private Jamar gets lost behind enemy lines. He hides in the woods but at some point he must make his way back home. Peter Meister’s Horizon is about politics, economy, philosophy and the meaning of life. Three people on board of a lifeboat and in open water. Their ragged clothing suppose that they are there for days now, exposed to the weather’s will. When they realize that in order to survive, one of them has to be eaten. But which one?

Last year’s double winner Albert Meisl, our neighbours from Austria are back with us. The Victory of Charity – a dedicated musician finds his old stage dress from the 60’s in a charity shop on sale. He will stop at nothing to get the dress back. Another Austrian short from this year selection should be mentioned: the disturbing Royal Blue tells us about a father travelling with his daughter and stop at a bookmaker. He leaves his daughter in the car, only to find out there is nothing the same as it was when he returns.

Safe Flight arrives from Croatia: a family about to set off to a trip. Since they frightened by plane crash, they decide to take the trip in two separate groups. But this causing dispute between them, who should travel with whom? The annualy returning Israeli shorts are represented by Across the Line from Nadav Shlomo Giladi. It’s Sabbath time and the young Jewish boy rushes home when an encounter with a Palestine hitchhiker leads to unexpected events. The MAMON from Uruguay is an amazingly created short. critical, satirical, in which Donald Trump undergoes a heart surgery. That opens a portal to a parallel universe through which Latino-Americans starts fall down to the desert divided by an enormous wall on the border of US and Mexico.

Forever now, by Kristian Håskjold is about a couple breaking up after years of relationship. To ease the pain of it, they turn to drugs. Daniel Mulloy’s Home had numerous award nomination. The Kosovo-British coproduction shows how thousands of people are trying to flock into Europe, while a comfortable English family set off to a trip that meant to be a holiday. Midnight Confession from Canada by Maxwell McCabe-Lokos which takes place in West Berlin in 1989. O Matko! an interesting Polish animation by Paulina Ziolkowska: Mother and son in a permanent role play life. Sketch from Peter Lee Scott is a typical English humor short, shrilling, snappy at the same time smartly dosing the famous absurd humor: average day at a court of nowhere land in 1979. Speaking of absurd humor, Versus by Demetrio Elorz is also recommended to watch: two tennis player prepare for an important game, which ends at the very first point. The crowd decide the winner, outstanding mixture of the bloodbath of Roman Colosseum games and modern days cruel tennis world. www.busho.hu